The Daily News. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1917. THE LATEST HUN ATROCITY.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 October 1917, Page 4

The Daily News. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1917. THE LATEST HUN ATROCITY.

No civilised person can read the account of the massacre by the Huns of the passengers and crews of the convoyed ships, which were recently attacked by raiders in the North Sea, withput feeling the utmost horror and indignation, Such a bar' \'.o atrocity could only toe committed by those who have sunk into the primitive stage of existence where the lust for destroying life was an obsession. The intervening centuries have only changed the methods, leaving the Huns, with the basic principle strongly developed, to shock the World with their tigerish thirst for killing, with a ferocity that defies all comprehension. It is true that they hold no allegiance to any law except that of their overlord, and he is rajpidly rearing the end of a career of infamy, hypocrisy and duplicity, his hands dripping with the blood of innumerable innocent men and women sacrificed to his lust for power and his hatred of restraint, content only when, as the great man of the earth, lie can stride roughshod over the people of all nations and,crush.them under his iron heel. Such as the master is, in ferocious < instinct such are the men who do his bidding. A convoy of twelve merchantmen, escorted 'by. two British destroyers—a woefully insignificant escort—was traversing the North Sea, when it was at' tacked by two large German warships, To have attacked the destroyers and taken possession of the ships would have been a perfectly legitimate proceeding, but the lawless and blqodthirsty Hun pirates set to work to destroy the escorts, the ships and every soul aboard. Having disposed of the destroyers, which put up a great fight in vain, the murder: ers fired broadsides at the merchantmen, killing passengers and crows and sinking the vessels. Those who entered boats in the hope of being allowed a chance of escape were, met with broadsides of shells whereby many were killed. Turn' ing hack from this inferno towards the ships from which they came, the shells still pursuad them, in one case all being killed except the captain. Signals of surrender were made and even women waved white garments as a plea for mercy, but all in vain. The inexorable work of fiendish cruelty went on until the remaining vessels had been sunk when the raiders fled for fear of being caught by the British squadron which they had successfully evaded in their outward dash in the long dark night. Naturally the question arises as to how this murderous raid appealed to the German nation. Very much as one would expect. The German press "joined in a chorus of exulting praise, seeing in this and the Osel operations proof of the bold offensive spirit of the German fleet." Had positions been reversed there would have been a chorus of virulent denuncia-

ioi), anil it would have been perfectly ustified. Tlie bold offensive spirit of

the Cierman navy can now. as previously, be measured by its ability and willingness to .perpetrate cold blooded and cowardly atrocities on innocent passengers and crews. This wanton waste of life and criminal ferocity may he a part of the campaign of frightfulness, but it is revolting to civilised humanity Stnd adds another to the long list of foul crimes committed by barbarians who are posing as the apostles of Kultur. Henceforth there should be no quarter given to tho enemy. The interests of humanity and civilisation demand the elimination of such monsters of iniquity. We can faae our losses, however heavy, in the battle arena with equanimity—it is part of the •'rice that bss to be paid—but every lioncomhatant that is done to death, especially under such horrible conditions as prevailed ill this latest outrage, cries aioud for just punishment, fitting the criminally inhuman deads of these ruthJess Huns, who seek by atrocious crimes to make the highways of the ocean an tuferuo of death and destruction.